A source from the judiciary had revealed to Reuters that Apple Inc in Italy was being investigated over tax fraud charges. The source who was familiar with the matter said the state of Italy claimed Apple hid over EUR1 billion or GBP838 million from getting levied with tax. The source's news had confirmed an earlier local media report, said Reuters.

The judicial source, who refused to be identified, said on Wednesday, "The Apple investigation is under way." The source did not provide any other details about the investigation.

When asked by Reuters, the subsidiary of Apple in Italy was not available immediate to provide comment.

The government of Italy had launched a global crackdown of multinationals who had devised ways to cheat on tax payments. The iPhone maker would be one of the latest high-profile companies who had been put on the spotlight by the state of Italy for tax probe.

The state of Italy's investigations had been aggressive in dealing with multinational companies regarding the latter's taxes. In June, fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were ordered to pay a hefty fine and carry out a 20-month suspended prison sentence for hiding unpaid taxes amounting to hundreds of millions in euro.

Investigations on Apple's tax practices had been done not just only by the government of Italy. Last year, Charlie Elphicke, a Member of Parliament of the British Conservative Party, had published research supporting the claim that multinationals like Apple cheat on paying taxes despite earning billions of profit in the UK.

A New York Times article discussed about Apple's specific tax practices that had allowed the company to sidestep income taxes in high tax-rate cities. Dubbed the "Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich," the accounting technique by Apple would have the tech giant designating overseas sales personnel in countries with high tax rates to sell in other areas on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries. This technique allowed Apple to route its profits via its subsidiaries in Ireland, the Netherlands, and then to subsidiaries in the Carribean.